Although scientists can say with near certainty that a major earthquake will strike the Kathmandu Valley in the future, they cannot predict with certainty when that major earthquake will strike. Such uncertainty generates another kind of uncertainty, about what to do now, in the near term, and in the long term. It can even facilitate delays in needed decision-making. Nepali stakeholders, drawn from government, civil society, and the private sector, joined several outside participants in a just-completed one-day exercise using rapid scenario planning methods to unlock implementable ideas for securing an earthquake-resilient Kathmandu Valley. They will report on the outcome of the working exercise during this panel discussion.

Reception to Follow

This initiative is part of the Harvard South Asia Institute’s Nepal Studies Program, launched with generous support from Jeffrey M. Smith.

In partnership with University of New South Wales, Tribhuwan University, Kathmandu University, and the Harvard Asia Center

The lecture-performance is part of Mohanty’s larger project ‘Act the Victim’ that engages with the images of crisis circulating on social media. It is based on a video excerpt of TV interview of Narendra Modi, then Chief Minister of Gujarat, that went viral on social media just before the 2014 General Elections in India. ‘Great Eternal Return’ will deal with the plethora of anonymous and mysterious images circulating on social media landscape, and traveling across geographical boundaries, contesting meanings and proposing misreadings. It will on one level study the shifting values of these obsessively parasitic images: their displacement, associations, propagandas, and investigate the processes of their creation and resurrection elsewhere. On the other hand, it will attempt to comprehend our encounters with these temporal images that continuously replace each other in an itinerant loop and become part of our collective memory, occupy our everyday conversations, public sphere, and our dreams.

Samip Mallick, co-founder and director of the first extensive public digital archive documenting the stories and histories of South Asians in the United States, and Pawan Dhingra, founding curator of the first large-scale national exhibition devoted to the lives and pasts of Indian Americans, will discuss the goals, approaches, challenges, and reception of their respective initiatives at a moment in which South Asians have reached a new level of presence in the U.S.

This is an orientation for students who are traveling to South Asia during Winter Session 2015, and will include travel tips and logistics, health and safety information, cultural introduction, and will provide an opportunity to meet other students who will be in the region. Food will be served!

All Harvard Students traveling to South Asia in Winter Session are welcome. Please RSVP to Nora Maginn, maginn@fas.harvard.edu if you’d like to join.

Come hear about SAI Summer Funding opportunities from 2014 SAI grant recipients. Learn about the various types of grants, the application process, how to write an appropriate budget for a summer in South Asia, and enjoy some delicious South Asian food.

Photographer Pablo Bartholomew, whose career spans over 40 years, introspects on his personal collection of historical photographs as well as works by other photographers from the pre and post-Independence era, rounding off by elaborating on contemporary practices. This visual walkthrough consists of photographic work that has marked and influenced him.

Chair: Dalia Linssen, Assistant Professor, RISD

Reception to follow.

Pablo’s photo exhibit, ‘Coded Elegance’ will be on display in the CGIS South Concourse, 1730 Cambridge Street, from Nov. 5 to Jan. 31, 2015.

With generous support from the Donald T. Regan Lecture Fund, the Arts Initiative at SAI brings experienced and emerging artists to Harvard whose work focus is on social issues related to South Asia.

In December 1984, a gas leak at the Union Carbide Factory, now owned by Dow Chemicals, caused the death of thousands of inhabitants of Bhopal and incapacitated the living who have yet to be fully compensated. Photographer Pablo Bartholomew, then aged 29, who arrived at the scene recounts his experiences of what it was like covering the disaster and its aftermath.

Lunch will be provided.

Pablo’s photo exhibit, ‘Coded Elegance’ will be on display in the CGIS South Concourse, 1730 Cambridge Street, from Nov. 5 to Jan. 31, 2015.

With generous support from the Donald T. Regan Lecture Fund, the Arts Initiative at SAI brings experienced and emerging artists to Harvard whose work focus is on social issues related to South Asia.